Mergers & Acquisitions, Acquisition | featured news

Johnson & Johnson is to buy Swiss medical devices maker Synthes Inc in a deal worth $21.3 billion, its largest ever buy, boosting its orthopedics franchise and reshaping the medical technology industry.

Level 3 Communications Inc. said Monday it will acquire another top long-distance Internet carrier, Global Crossing Ltd., in an all-stock transaction valued at about $2 billion. Both companies operate vast networks of optical fiber. Combined, they would reach 70 countries on three continents.

The parent company of the New York Stock Exchange said Sunday that it rejected an $11.3-billion bid from Nasdaq and IntercontinentalExchange to buy the company.

Dish Network Corp won Blockbuster Inc in a bankruptcy auction for about $320 million, a move that could see the second-largest U.S. satellite TV provider tapping the movie rental chain's online content to strengthen its offerings.

Looking at AT&T and its planned acquisition, it’s fair to suggest that it could not attract the financing necessary to complete the purchase if its plan was to raise prices. Not only would such a move be unrealistic given the existence of Verizon and other smaller competitors, it would also be self-defeating for high prices signaling to those outside the mobile-phone space a potentially profitable competitive opportunity.

AT&T announced on Sunday that it agreed to buy T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom, in a $39 billion deal that will reshape the cellular telephone industry. The merger — one of the largest since the onset of the financial crisis — would combine the second and fourth largest cellular carriers in the nation, bringing together AT&T’s 95.5 million wireless subscribers with T-Mobile’s 33.7 million customers.

Berkshire Hathaway has agreed to acquire the specialty chemical company Lubrizol for $9 billion in cash in one of the largest acquisitions in the conglomerate's history.

Google's mergers and acquisitions chief said he plans to be aggressive this year, despite challenges that include soaring valuations for some Web start-ups.

The deal is widely seen as an effort by the News Corporation's Rupert Murdoch to bring his daughter Elisabeth back into his media empire.

Comcast Corp has completed its takeover of NBC Universal, creating a $30 billion media behemoth that controls not just how television shows and movies are made but how they are delivered to people's homes.